Suit Filed over ‘Gated Community’ Created by Police Barricades

Civil Rights

Suit Filed over ‘Gated Community’ Created by Police Barricades

Posted Jun 17, 2008, 12:30 pm CST
By Martha Neil

The owners of an apartment complex in suburban Chicago have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against local government officials. At issue is the "gated community" created by concrete police barricades installed at 12 of the 13 entrance points to the complex earlier this month.

Police for Rolling Meadows, Ill., set up a checkpoint at the only remaining open entrance, at which they have been stopping residents for several hours daily. The purpose is to give them crime-prevention tips, including brochures in English and Spanish that describe available services, reports the Chicago Tribune.

"It's my intent to create a gated community for those residents," says Rolling Meadows Police Chief Steve Williams. He explains that he hopes to make the 12 Oaks at Woodfield complex safer for them by installing the barricades and checkpoint.

However, the owners of the apartment complex, who are represented by civil rights lawyer Blake Horwitz, are seeking a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction requiring that the barriers be removed. The lawsuit names as defendants the suburb and its city manager and police chief, as well as unnamed officers, the newspaper reports.

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